Craig is looking forward to arguing with his players
And I'm already tired of hearing how Alex Bregman is going to teach his teammates how to play
After doing the Baseball Ops panel to start the morning, Boog is back with Craig Counsell for the annual manager chat.
Andy Dolan
For the first question he asks the question we're all dying to know. "How is your job different than Ben Johnson?"
Well, Boog. One of them coaches football and the other baseball. Not sure if you've heard, those are different sports.
Craig is very good at this. Of the Cubs managers past and present at this convention he's not as good at the media stuff as Joe Maddon (who is?) and he's better than David Ross because he can carry a complete coherent thought.
He said he likes the style of baseball being played these days and the players that the Cubs value. Guys who make good swing decisions and hunt for strikes...and Petecrow. OK, he didn't say that last part, it was inferred.
They discuss how the pitch challenges are going to work. It's a cool system, and as Craig explains you have to be smart about when to use them because you only get two failed challenges and then you're out, if you keep winning the challenges you keep them. Boog asks him if he'll get thrown out less because there will be fewer missed pitches to argue about. Craig says he might actually get thrown out of games for yelling at his own players for wasting challenges on pitches that were clearly right.
I will tell you, something I miss is seeing a manager occasionally chewing out a player. It was the best part of having Lou Piniella. You hardly ever see it. Maybe that will come back? Win win!
